We visited the restaurant on a Sunday afternoon and was pleasantly surprised to find that set luncheons ( 3-course) are offered for the weekends too. There are 2 options - Set Lunch and an Executive Set Lunch. Dumpling chose a soup along with Filetto di Pollo which is pan fried chicken fillet in honey lemon sauce served with spaghetti.
Regular set lunch
Executive set lunch
:: The food
The clear soup was flavourful and the vegetables, soft, which Dumpling enjoyed.
The serving for the main course was generous with 2 pieces of the chicken fillet. Dumpling enjoyed this dish as the fillet was moist and the flavour, lightly sweet with the honey. I like that the spaghetti were tossed dried before being added to the dish and topped with the sauce on one side.
Filetto di Pollo Pan
For the adults, we ordered ala carte where we shared Parma Ham as an appetiser. I am very sensitive to the smell of ham / pork but thankfully, there was very little of 'that' from this. There is nothing much not to like about this dish with the blend of sweet (from the rockmelons) and salty (from the ham!). The rockmelons we had that morning was also chilled well. Dumpling asked to try a little and she enjoyed it a lot too. The salad in the middle added a nice dash of colour to the dish.
Prosciutto e Melone
Sliced rock melon topped with Parma ham
I have always enjoyed Risotto because I enjoy the creamy taste in the rice. When I saw that they offer Risotto with Squid Ink, I needed no encouragement to try the dish out. While I enjoyed the dish, it is a tad too salty for my liking. But the seafood was fresh and rice cooked to the creaminess which I like. I could also taste the flavour of the broth in the rice.
Risotto al Nero Con Sinfonia Dei Nostri Mari
Italian rice cooked with squid, prawn, scallop and fresh clam in squid ink
And of course, we paused in between for some 'squid-inked' smiley shots!
The hubs had a Spizzico Pizza (basically topped with Parma ham and parmesan cheese but he did away with the wild rocket). The feedback from the hubs was that the crust and base were a tad too dry.
I am not much of a dessert fan but when in an Italian place, tiramisu would be one of the few items I usually try. We ordered a slice to share and the serving was about 7 - 8cm x 5 - 6cm for $12. While of a reasonable serving, the cake was brought out to us topping over on one side (side not shown here).
Overall, the taste of the cake was fairly mediocre. The biscuits layers were a tad too soft and the mascarpone cheese not as creamy as I like.
On the whole, the food was rather good. Dumpling's set lunch at $14.50++ was also pretty worth it. The rest of our food (except for the dessert) were in the range of $20 - $25. Having said that, the service was a let-down.
:: The service
We arrived at 1135am where there was just one serving staff. When I made reservations over the phone a few nights before, I was not impressed with the staff who took down our reservation. He sounded distracted and asked for my details a few times before getting it right. After being shown to our seats, we were left there without much attention given (there was just one other couple besides us) and we waited. And waited some more. In the end, the hubs had to walk to the front counter to signal to him to take our order.
Our table setting also did not include any napkins or serviettes. When Dumpling's spaghetti arrived, we could not get anyone to bring us Parmesan cheese and the hubs had to finally get it instead. Finally another serving staff arrived after noon and she did top up our glasses of water but our plates were not cleared promptly.
But the thing that tops it off? You notice how Dumpling's set lunch included dessert? Well, it was forgotten and we were not served that at all. Not surprisingly, the coffee / tea was also not served.
We got tired of waiting and proceeded to head off after paying for the meal.
It is a pity because the food and ambience were pretty nice. But as my hubs puts it - "what service"?
Spizzico
81A Clemenceau Avenue #01-13,
UE Square,
S(239918)
Tel: 6333 6174 / 6333 6833
What's with the Comic Sans font on the menu? Hahaha!
ReplyDeleteEh donch like that la! At least better than Times New Roman which I really really dislike. :p
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